PC_Day12

Day 12

Thursday, 10 June 2004
Florence, OR to North Bend, OR
51.8 miles, 4h08m, 12.5 mph
Elapsed Time: 7h52m, Max speed: 37.4mph
Total Climbing: 1923ft, Max elevation: 423ft
Total mileage: 683.7

The bike shop in Florence didn't open until nine, so we slept in until...almost nine. Then we rode the 1 mile into town, me on my duct taped front wheel. At the shop we met Mike and Keith from Minnesota, who are riding from San Diego to Alaska with a church group of eight. The airline really beat the crap out of their bikes. Between talking to Mike and Keith, replacing my tires, drinking coffee, and shooting the breeze with the guy in the shop, we didn't get out of there until almost noon. Anyway, if you're ever in Florence, and need a bike, be sure to visit Bicycles 101--not that you'd have any choice, it's the only shop in town.

Bicycles 101 in Florence.

I bought two new tires and kept my surviving old tire as a spare. I jammed it into my bag so the bead is probably broken and the tire would probably be worthless if we need it, but hopefully just having it will make it unnecessary.

Florence is at the northern edge of Oregon Dune country. Most of the dunes are part of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, which surprisingly, is administered by the Forest Service. Sand dunes are generally not considered to be good timberland. People swarm to this place to drive their off-road vehicles around on the dunes. They are the sand people. We will speak of them no more.

The playland of the sand people.

Name this bird: First correct answer will be mentioned (favorably) on this page.
By the way, I don't know the answer, so the most plausible bird name wins.
[Recorded program: No calls please.]

Uh oh.

We ate lunch at a small bakery in Winchester Bay. We sat outside because we have learned that sitting inside makes us cold afterwards. Instead we were cold the whole time. At least it didn't rain. Then we rode to the Umqua Head lighthouse and took a picture of it.

Here's proof.

Then we poured it on and hammered toward North Bend. There was one last big bridge to cross to get into town. There was lots of traffic, but there was a sidewalk and we had to push our bikes. The bridge was about a mile long. It was pretty dull until about half way across when an SUV coming the other way lurched to a stop. Poor bastard. This has got to be the worst place within 50 miles to break down. In fact, this has got to be the only bad place to break down within 50 miles. If he had gone another few yards he would have crested the bridge and been able to coast down. This was very exciting for us since we got to tell all the drivers stuck in the backup what the problem was. Yes, very exciting.

JT strikes a GQ pose on the bridge.

We checked in to the Ramada and grabbed some dinner at a nearby low-grade seafood place. We hope to get out of the tsunami hazard zone tomorrow.

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